Normal Christmastime, Future Kids Considered
by Rebyll
Summary: This is a special preview of my project, "Normal School Year, Future Kids Considered." This is an except which documents our decorating for Christmas.


**Please Note: This is a small portion of my larger work, "Normal School Year, Future Kids Considered," which is a slice-of-life humor story with a little bit of romance which chronicles what happens after I am shot into the future, save Cato, Clove, Marvel, Glimmer, Luci (of District 3), Marissa "Foxface" Finch, Thresh and Rue from the 74th Hunger Games, and we help the revolution against Panem, saving Prim and Finnick along the way. Now, with all of those named, and Gale, Peeta, Katniss and Johanna, we get shot back in time to my time, and after electronically pulling off the greatest heist in history, creating complete records for all of the future-born people and essentially adding them into the system, we now have to contend with high school. The story is made of several small scenes with indiscriminate amounts of time between them, therefore while the story is linear, not every single event is shown, due to the fact that school can be boring. However, holidays and some major events will be points of relation time wise to other scenes. There is also a romance aspect. **

**This is a small section which I have posted to get in the Christmas spirit, and will be added into the main story (which I will start posting soon). This was written while listening to Tom Petty's "Christmas All Over Again" on repeat, and takes place on the Friday of the week following Thanksgiving. Where I live, this time of year is doesn't snow, however I have taken several creative liberties since the story takes place in an undisclosed location. Please enjoy. **

_**Normal Christmastime, Future Kids Considered**_

We all love when Friday is an early dismissal. I head to the car after school, meeting the rest of the group by our vehicles. A silver lustered Aston-Martin DB9, a shiny black Lincoln Town-Car, a dark metallic Ford Crown Victoria, and a matte white, modified Jeep Wrangler. I say modified, I mean raised suspension, massive wheels and tires, lights mounted atop the chassis, a bullbar with a winch on the front grill, and a snorkel intake. Basically, a military vehicle.

"Marvel, that damn thing looks ridiculous," I comment upon seeing the Jeep for the first time.

"I call it," he proclaims proudly before dropping his voice to a low mumble, "Merryweather."

"Son of a bitch, you've been playing GTA again!" I realize.

"So?" He asks and climbs into the beast.

"Clove, Marissa, Gale, c'mon!" I call to the guys riding with me today.

"We're coming!" Marissa shouts.

"Cato, I'm trusting with it," I tell my buddy before tossing him the keys to my car.

"You're letting me drive the Aston-Martin?" he asks in disbelief.

"Yeah," I reply simply before entering the Town Car.

"Okay, get us home," Marissa requests.

"Right away," I reply and the four cars exit the parking lot in a line, Cato leading before he takes off.

"Hotshot," Gale mutters.

"If he wrecks that thing," I mutter.

"Why'd we get the other three cars anyway?" Clove asks me.

"I knew things were hectic, people hitching rides with teammates and such, so I decided on Wednesday to go to a used car lot. Since we have a ton of money, I got my hands on the Lincoln and the Crown Vic. Marvel bought that damn Jeep and then had it modified to be like the Merryweather variant in GTA. And he didn't have to go through all the bullshit of killing people to get it! So ridiculous!" I explain before descending into joking.

"Anyway, we need to decorate," Marissa reminds us.

"Full speed ahead," I acknowledge and get on the highway.

"Here we are, the old homestead," Gale jokes.

"Two months you've lived here, not even," I remind him.

"End of September we moved in here," he responds, "Also, shut up."

"Hey guys. Got all the decorations ready to be put out!" Glimmer informs us.

"Awesome!" I reply. I love Christmas.

"Dude, let's get the tree up," Cato suggests.

"Okay," I reply.

"You two have the tree, Gale and Marvel, take care of the outside lights," Glimmer orders, "Katniss, Clove and Luci, start putting out the various table decorations. Thresh, you hang anything needing to be hung. Rue, Prim, Johanna and Peeta are on cookie duty!"

"Aye aye skipper," Peeta replies and the four head to the kitchen.

"Why Johanna?" Cato asks.

"She owns a damn coffee shop," Glim replies.

"I take it I'm helping make sure the guys outside don't trip the breakers?" Marissa inquires.

"Exactly," Glim confirms and Marissa heads outside with the two putting up the lights.

"Okay Cato, here's the bottom section," I inform him.

"All right, no problem," he replies and unfolds the stand and sets the tree in the corner of the living room.

"Now, section two, lift!" I order and we pick it up and slot it in to the bottom part of the tree.

"Why do we have an artificial tree?" Katniss asks me in disappointment.

"Because like my dad, I'll get sick when I'm around a real tree for a few weeks. I mean having one in the house," I answer.

"And sick boyfriends are no fun to make out with," Clove says.

"We sleep in the same room and I braved that virus you had last weekend," I remind you.

"Oh that's right, Mr. Perfect," she mutters.

"Just Mr. Perfect Memory," I counter, "The perfect one is you."

"You flatter me too much," she replies.

"My words don't do you justice sweetheart," I correct her.

"Top of the tree," Cato reminds me.

"Right," I say. We lift up the much lighter top and place it in its spot.

"Looks good,"Cato compliments.

"Get me a power strip and that remote switch," I order before delving into the tree's branches to find the power cables. I find the connection between section one and two and plug them in, and then the one between two and three and connect them as well. I drop to the floor to find the power cable to plug into the wall.

"Got 'em!" Cato informs me.

"Awesome," I reply and take the two pieces of requested technology from him. I plug the switch into the wall and then the power strip into that, and then the tree into the strip. I switch the power strip on, hit "ON" on the remote and the tree lights up.

"As much as I hate to admit, I do like having an artificial tree like this," Glimmer reveals, "I know lights are a pain in the ass to string onto a tree. But I need these lights hung on that wall."

"On it," Thresh acknowledged and strings the inside lights up with no problem. I plug them into the power strip as well.

"Guys, this is looking awesome," Luci compliments.

"We're done," Marvel informs us as they reenter the house.

"And it's snowing," Gale adds.

"Man, we got off school Monday for snow, and last week was Thanksgiving, and again, we have snow," Marissa observes.

"As I said, freak storms. Also proves global warming is bullshit," I recall, again, my words from a month ago.

"C'mon, let's decorate the tree," Clove suggests.

"Hot chocolate is available," Johanna pokes her head in from the kitchen to inform us.

"I'll take a mug," I tell her.

"Me too," Clove adds.

"I will have one as well," Marvel continues.

"Ooh, this one is pretty," Marissa states and hangs a green and red blown glass ornament on the tree.

"I love Christmas. Have never experienced a true Christmas and I love it already," Clove says excitedly.

"You're just glad you can spend it with me," I analyze.

"Because you're glad you can spend it with me," she counters while adding another ornament to the tree.

"That is absolutely right because you," I start before giving her a kiss on her forehead, "are one smart cookie."

"Speaking of cookies, chocolate chips are done. And they're hot too," Prim tells us.

"Awesome," Cato responds as he puts on yet another ornament.

"Wow, this tree looks great," Katniss observes.

"I know," Gale agrees.

"Well, I declare us decorated!" Glimmer declares.

"And now, time to relax by the fire," I state and settle over by the roaring fireplace as I drink my hot chocolate and the snow comes down. Clove joins me.

"We did forget one thing," Marissa says.

"What?" I ask.

"Look up," Marvel instructs. Clove and I both do so and Glimmer's hanging over the edge of the railing of the second floor, with mistletoe clutched in her hand.

"Merry Christmas love," I tell Clove.

"Merry Christmas sweetie," she replies before we kiss.


End file.
